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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 08/26/94 -- Vol. 13, No. 9
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Middletown 1R-400C
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
08/27 Movie: *No film this week*
09/03 Movie: *No film this week*
09/10 Movie: WAR OF THE WORLDS (Saturday night, 8PM, RSVP)
09/14 Book: A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT by Mark Twain
(Classics)
09/17 Movie: INVADERS FROM MARS (Saturday night, 8PM, RSVP)
09/24 Movie: PHANTOM FROM SPACE (Saturday night, 8PM, RSVP)
10/05 Book: MINING THE OORT by Frederik Pohl (tentative)
10/26 Book: INTERVIEW IWTH A VAMPIRE by Anne Rice (movie tie-ins)
11/16 Book: FRANKENSTEIN (Classics *and* movies tie-ins)
Outside events:
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the second
Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call 201-933-2724 for
details. The New Jersey Science Fiction Society meets on the third
Saturday of every month in Belleville; call 201-432-5965 for details.
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 m.r.leeper@att.com
HO Chair: John Jetzt MT 2G-432 908-957-5087 j.j.jetzt@att.com
HO Co-Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 908-949-7076 n.j.sauer@att.com
HO Co-Librarian: Lance Larsen HO 2C-318 908-949-4156 l.f.larsen@att.com
MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 m.r.leeper@att.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist:
Rob Mitchell MT 2D-536 908-957-6330 r.l.mitchell@att.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 e.c.leeper@att.com
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. Reuters reports that Romanian authorities say that Dracula's
castle is in a terrifying state and desperately needs money to be
saved. They have detected fissures in the rock foundation of the
Bran Castle and say that an earth tremor could cause the entire
structure to collapse. According to Reuters, "State funds for
emergency consolidation works have run dry."
THE MT VOID Page 2
Which reminds me...
FLASH!
THE MT VOID is in imminent danger of collapse. Deep fissures have
been discovered in the base of our type font. The result is that
our letterhead is listing still imperceptibly but dangerously to
the right, due to the prepondrance of heavier letters to that side.
Teams of experts have been called in and say that the letterhead
could fall at any time. AT&T officials say that they are
sympathetic, but due to the recent cost cuts they may just have to
let the old and deeply-loved publication meet its doom. We are
desperately asking all members and other interested parties to join
in the crusade to save the VOID and send their dollars to the VOID
care of Mark Leeper.
===================================================================
2. THE ANGEL OF THE OPERA by Sam Siciliano (Otto Penzler, ISBN 1-
883402-46-8, 1994, 256pp, $21.95) (a book review by Evelyn C.
Leeper):
Last year was Nicholas Meyer's _T_h_e _C_a_n_a_r_y _T_r_a_i_n_e_r, and now we have
Sam Siciliano's _T_h_e _A_n_g_e_l _o_f _t_h_e _O_p_e_r_a. One suspects that this is
due more to the success of the Broadway play about the Phantom of
the Opera than to the authors suddenly finding the Gaston Leroux
novel on their library shelves. I suppose that any day now we'll
get a novel in which Sherlock Holmes meets Cosette (and what _i_s her
last name anyway?).
But _T_h_e _A_n_g_e_l _o_f _t_h_e _O_p_e_r_a is much better then last year's _C_a_n_a_r_y
_T_r_a_i_n_e_r. For one thing, it's much more faithful to the Leroux
original. I suppose one might even claim it is too accurate to the
original, with such a wealth of detail from the novel that it might
appear as though Siciliano put it all in simply because he knew it.
(In fact, the only technical quibble I have is that the Phantom's
letter on page 23 re-arranges and renumbers the clauses of the
letter of the original, placing more emphasis on Madame Giry than
in the Leroux. The sense of he translation of that and other
missives is accurate, however, as compared against the Livre de
Poche edition.)
Siciliano manages to have Holmes play a key role in the action
without disrupting it from the original sequence of events. He
does this by having Holmes intentionally work behind the scenes.
Also, he is using the story to show the parallels between Holmes
and Erik rather than to have Holmes take over and solve the
mystery. Siciliano's view of Holmes's personality is not entirely
new, but he presents it better than many have done previously.
Holmes's companion here is his cousin Henry Vernier, who explains
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that Watson was "extremely conventional and had little imagination"
and so never really understood Holmes. But Siciliano does not make
Holmes a caricature by having him so obviously unlike Watson's
portrayal that one suspects Watson had the perception of a blind
mole.
While _T_h_e _C_a_n_a_r_y _T_r_a_i_n_e_r adds a cardboard Holmes in a formula
fashion, _T_h_e _A_n_g_e_l _o_f _t_h_e _O_p_e_r_a uses the story of Erik to
illuminate that of Holmes. The ending is predictable about a
hundred pages into the novel, but in spite of that I would
recommend this book--and of course the original Leroux as well.
===================================================================
3. R. HOLMES & CO. by John Kendrick Bangs (Otto Penzler, ISBN 1-
883402-63-8, 1994 (1906c), 231pp, $8) (a book review by Evelyn C.
Leeper):
This is only marginally Holmes-related. Bangs's premise is that
Sherlock Holmes married A. J. Raffles's daughter and produced
Mr. Raffles Holmes, who through some interesting genetic quirk
seems to have inherited both his grandfather's criminal tendencies
and his father's sense of justice ("and the elements So mix'd in
him ..."). However scientifically unlikely, this mix does give
Bangs an easy frame to hang his plots on: Raffles engages in some
dishonest behavior, then repents, offers his services as detective,
"recovers" the missing items, and pockets the reward.
Not all the stories fit this mold, but there is little enough
variation that they provide no mystery or surprise to the reader.
The book is quite short--due to large type and wide margins, the
231 pages total fewer than 40,000 words--and is of interest only as
a historical oddity, or to a Holmes completist.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
m.r.leeper@att.com
A memorandum is written not to inform the reader
but to protect the writer.
-- Dean Acheson
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